Thursday, February 19, 2015

"Under the direction of Mr. William E. Hentschel, a class in
commercial art and advertising will be a feature of the summer session of the
Art Academy of Cincinnati that starts on Monday June 17. In a world where a
great premium is placed on publicity, the commercial artist with a thorough
background and training will be the artist whose work will be in demand. The
national defense program has called countless artists to aid in warning the
country of its peril and many more will be called in the future. It would be
wise for young commercial artists to be prepared.

To work with Mr. Hentschel is considered one of the most
valuable privileges of studying at the Art Academy. Former students at the Art
Academy, by the importance of their positions and their success, testify to the
excellence of Mr. Hentschel’s instruction. Long experience in all fields of
commercial art has enabled Mr. Hentschel to speak and teach with authority, for
he has lent his talents to such great and diverse fields as glass, leather,
metals, pottery, silk and publishing.

His ceramics are to be seen in the
Metropolitan Museum of New York and he has an exhibition of the technique of
air brush painting on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
His attractive air brush prints are to be seen in many cities from coast to
coast where they have enjoyed a wide vogue.

Mr. Hentschel’s earliest training was at the famous Art
Students’ League of New York. He continued his preparation for his profession
here in Cincinnati at the Art Academy where he now teaches. Associated as
designer with the Rookwood Pottery for many years, he is at present one of the
driving forces in the new Kenton Hills pottery across the river in Kentucky.

The commercial art and advertising class which Mr. Hentschel
teaches meets each Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon from 1 until 4 o’clock,
June 16 through Aug. 9. Other classes that will be given during the summer
session at the Art Academy include “Drawing and Painting” with Mr. Myer Abel
and “Landscape Painting” led by Mr. Reginald L. Grooms. For further information
call CHerry 8792."

--Cincinnati
Times-Star, June 12, 1941

The Smithsonian's Rookwood pottery by WEH

"I checked with staff
with responsibility over the graphic arts collections in the Culture and the
Arts Division, American History Museum. They stated:"Yes, we have several air-brushed stencil
prints by Hentschel. There is a series of proofs and stencils, as shown in the
1977 Pochoir exhibition. We have two other Hentschel stencil prints, a larger
fish subject dated 1939, and a bird and flower subject received in 1983.Aquatones are a different process, a form of
screened collotype. One of the firms using the patent license was Edward
Stern & Co. of Philadelphia.

I don't believe Hentschel is connected with the
Aquatone process, but obviously someone used the term in relation to his work,
as you cited in the original message.None of our Hentschel prints have been
imaged." Images of the Rookwood Pottery may be found on
our Collections Search page. Search on Hentschel and it will pull up an image
of the bowl (accession # 1966-3-20) and vase (accession # 1966-3-18)."

"Pochoir [\(ˈ)pōsh¦wär\] means stenciling. It is a French name used for a
very special application of the ancient stencil process, introduced in France
in the late 1800s and developed to a peak—in France and elsewhere—in the years
before the Great Depression. The number of pochoir workshops has dwindled ever
since…In the United States pochoir has never had the same success as in France…William
E. Hentschel, whose pochoir Green Fish
is shown in Part 6 of the exhibition, was something of an exception. Hentschel
(1892-1962) was an illustrator, commercial artist and instructor at the
Cincinnati Art Academy where he spent most of his active life. His work in
commercial design introduced him to the airbrush, a rather new invention, and
also to stencil printing. He became a master of both and used them with great
skill in his decorative designs, such as Green
Fish, as well as in purely commercial applications."

Thursday, January 1, 2015

IN THIS SHOW, the adults are still running things. And the
kids like it.

It started out that way 29 years ago, when Mme. Feodorova
wielded a strong hand over a select group of that generation’s young ballroom
dancers. It continues today, with 11-to-14-year-olds lapping up a lot of good,
old fashioned discipline.

Until recently, the Town Class, as it’s called, shied from
publicity. Now its sponsors have invited a spotlight to illustrate how boys and
girls respond to hearing en masse what they heard at home.

“NO CHILD wants to be an oddball. This is sort of mob
psychology,” says Mr. George Gallas, who has been director of the class since
1952.

“I want every boy who is chewing gum to get rid of it. The
girls, too.” Mr. Gallas announced at the spring party of sixth graders.

A few unabashed dancers parked their offending wads, hardly
interrupting their participation in a fox trot contest.

“Posture is what counts. If it’s bad, I don’t even look at
their feet,” confided Mr. Callas, as he kept his judge’s eyes on the contest.

WITH NO EXCEPTIONS, the girls in the class of 125 wore two
wardrobe “musts” for their age group, white ankle socks and white cotton
gloves. With few exceptions, the boys sported dark suits. An occasional plaid
coat was explained away by Mr. Gallas as allowable because it was a party.

“Children should know the difference between behavior in a
ballroom and on a football field,” said Mr. Gallas, pointing a friendly finger
at a group sitting down after a dance number.

Similar scenes are repeated on 24 Friday evenings during the
school year, alternating with fifth and seventh graders in
one-and-one-half-hour sessions each week, sixth and eighth graders on a similar
schedule the other week. The setting is the Veronese Room at the Hotel Alms.

SETTING POLICY is a board of 12 mothers,
representing different schools in the city. The classes are by invitation, but
not confined to private schools. When the 125-member quota for each class is
filled it is closed.

Fritz Gardner asks Stephanie Block for a dance.

Standing by, not only as a board member but as counselor, is
Mme. Feodorova, known in private life as Mrs. Halina Hentschel.* Her name has
been “sacred” to parents seeking poise for their children, ever since the
former ballet dancer came here from Russia with Pavlova, and stayed.

The white gloves apply to girls in all the classes, but the
ankle socks are allowed to give way to stockings for the seventh and eighth
graders.
“Children want to be told what to do. Then they conform,”
Mr. Gallas said from wide experience.

THEIR CONFORMITORY seemed in no way to dampen the fun of the
evening, as some of them tried the newer dances, others stuck securely to the
fox trot.

Every lesson, the class’ director said, has to be repeated
constantly, on the theory that only by repetition can the actions become
natural.

“That’s why I keep telling the boys to say, ‘May I have this
dance?’ There is no other way to say it.”

For the boys, the lessons include the proper way to hand a
girl a cup of punch, at refreshment time, and the proper way to hold a girl
while dancing. For the girls, they include the constant reminder that when
walking to a door they should stand back to allow the boy to open it for them.

FOR BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS, it’s the trip down the receiving
line, at the end of the evening, where stress is put on shaking hands firmly
while looking the adult host and hostess in the face, and on saying “good evening”
in a clear voice.

“It’s one and one-half hours of constantly drumming in good
behavior and poise,” summarized Mr. Gallas.

--As printed in The Cincinnati Enquirer, May 23, 1965

*Four years after his death and 26 years after their divorce, Halina Feodorova must have still wanted the association with William Hentschel even as Billy's widow, across the Ohio river in Kentucky, was recovering portions of his trashed W&S mural.